by an angry glance.  But what bishop presumed to insist on public penance for the persecutions of the Huguenots, or the lavish expenditures and imperious tyranny of the court mistresses, who scandalized France?  I read of no churchman who, in more recent times, has dared to reprove and openly rebuke a sovereign, in the style of Ambrose, except John Knox.  Ambrose not merely reproved, but he punished, and brought the greatest emperor, since Constantine, to the stool of penitence.

It was by such acts, as prelate, that Ambrose won immortal fame, and set an example to future ages.  His whole career is full of such deeds of intrepidity.  Once he refused to offer the customary oblation of the altar until Theodosius had consented to remit an unjust fine.  He battled all enemies alike,—­infidels, emperors, and Pagans.  It was his mission to act, rather than to talk.  His greatness was in his character, like that of our Washington, who was not a man of words or genius.  What a failure is a man in an exalted post without character!

But he had also other qualities which did him honor,—­for which we reverence him.  See his laborious life, his assiduity in the discharge of every duty, his charity, his broad humanity, soaring beyond mere conventional and technical and legal piety.  See him breaking in pieces the consecrated vessels of the cathedral, and turning them into money to redeem Illyrian captives; and when reproached for this apparent desecration replying thus:  “Whether is it better to preserve our gold or the souls of men?  Has the Church no higher mission to fulfil than to guard the ornaments made by men’s hands, while the faithful are suffering exile and bonds?  Do the blessed sacraments need silver and gold, to be efficacious?  What greater service to the Church can we render than charities to the unfortunate, in obedience to that eternal test, ‘I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat’”?  See this venerated prelate giving away his private fortune to the poor; see him refusing even to handle money, knowing the temptation to avarice or greed.  What a low estimate he placed on what was so universally valued, measuring money by the standard of eternal weights!  See this good bishop, always surrounded with the pious and the learned, attending to all their wants, evincing with his charities the greatest capacity of friendship.  His affections went out to all the world, and his chamber was open to everybody.  The companion and Mentor of emperors, the prelate charged with the most pressing duties finds time for all who seek his advice or consolation.

One of the most striking facts which attest his goodness was his generous and affectionate treatment of Saint Augustine, at that time an unconverted teacher of rhetoric.  It was Ambrose who was instrumental in his conversion; and only a man of broad experience, and deep convictions, and profound knowledge, and exquisite tact, could have had influence over the greatest thinker of Christian antiquity.  Augustine